


Casualty

by HitanTenshi



Category: Bleach
Genre: Character Death, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, shuuhei is pretty distraught so… yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 21:57:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6628213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HitanTenshi/pseuds/HitanTenshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What might Ayasegawa Yumichika have done upon waking up in the scarred Fake Karakura Town after the battle's conclusion, when all who remain are the wounded and the dead?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casualty

He'd felt something cold and wet hit his face before it had all gone black. He'd felt himself keel forward, and a startled Shuuhei had caught him. But then everything had gone down the drain of drug-induced unconsciousness, swallowing him along with his panic for Ikkaku.

When he finally manages to pull himself up out of that darkness, everything is still. At least, much stiller than when he had passed out. He can hear people barking commands, but reiatsu is no longer pressing on the air itself. Is the fight over? Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Yumichika blinks a few times to ground himself before looking around.

The fake Karakura Town is, simply put, in ruins. He has a cursory flit of disappointment at having missed getting to watch whatever great battles had left scars of this magnitude across the landscape. But then, of course, he remembers why he had been knocked out in the first place.

"Ikkaku!!!"

Desperation has Yumichika pivoting on hands and knees in an effort to locate the wrecked pillar, where Ikkaku had been (impossibly) beaten. But then he looks at the ground around him and gets his answer. Ikkaku, Iba, Hinamori, Matsumoto — all battered to hell and stretched out. Kira is there, too, but he doesn't appear injured.

"Ayasegawa-san! You're awake!"

Yumi throws him a glare intended to kill. "No thanks to _you_ , Kira-san." And the blond shrinks _satisfyingly_ under that look. That small revenge garnered, Yumichika alights (he is far too graceful to _shuffle_ — perish the thought!) by Ikkaku's side and presses a palm to his forehead.

"…Oi… th'fuck, Yumi…"

That's his Ikkaku, all right. "Just making sure you didn't die on me, fool."

The third seat grins, despite the blood staining some of his teeth. " 's if I'd do that."

"You're a moron. …Is Hozukimaru all right?"

Ikkaku looks at his splintered shikai. "…Not sure. Ain't talkin' t'me right now."

"At least _one_ of us knows how to give you proper silent treatment, then." Yumichika sighs with some relief. It's all right. Ikkaku is safe. His world can go on stable a little longer now.

That leaves room for other thoughts. He looks around again at the lieutenants. Iba, Hinamori, Matsumoto, Kira…

"Where is Hisagi-san?"

The blond bites his lip and determinedly looks back to Matsumoto.

"Kira-san? Wha—"

But he is cut off by the arrival of several Fourth Division members. The area immediately becomes abuzz with instructions and healing incantations, and only after ensuring that the pansies who will be looking after Ikkaku know what they're doing does Yumichika stand and cross the stretch of concrete to Kira.

"What was that just now?" he presses, grabbing the kosode of the slightly taller man and doing his best to intimidate. "Why did you avoid my question about Shuuhei?" A slip he'll think about when panic isn't starting to build in his chest again.

Kira balks, but the pained look in his visible cyan eye is answer enough. Immediately, Yumichika releases the other and searches for the distinctive reiatsu. After all, he knows its taste so well by now that he can always pick it out of a crowd. When he does find it, however, he flinches, because the state of Shuuhei's reiatsu is… well…

It feels as though Shuuhei is screaming.

Kira tries to call him back when he uses shunpo, but Yumichika isn't listening. Shuuhei is in pain, _unimaginable_ pain. He _has_ to go to him.

When he gets closer, he knows that the screaming isn't just a sensation limited to Shuuhei's reiatsu. That voice, usually so deep and melodic and beautiful, is tearing itself apart in audible agony. He's heard Shuuhei scream before (sometimes by his own hand), but _never_ like this.

Finally, he crests a diminutive mountain of rubble and can see the small huddle of three people. Captain Komamura, bleeding from numerous wounds, but on his feet; a silver-haired man he doesn't know, but whose reiatsu _distinctly_ tastes of hollow; and Shuuhei, suffering from injuries and soaked in blood. Actually, now that he can finally make out the words clawing out of Shuuhei, he realizes that there is a fourth person. Or had been. He realizes that Shuuhei is coated with what's left of his captain's corpse.

Yumichika has seen ugly deaths before, but not like this. Maybe it only affects him because of Shuuhei, but his stomach turns over.

One more shunpo puts him at the outskirts of the trio. Komamura is both trying to console Shuuhei and trying to engage the help of the silver-haired man, a " _Muguruma-san"_. Wait… he's heard that name before. From Shuuhei, in fact, though he doesn't remember the context. Does Shuuhei _know_ this person? But, tch, it isn't important right now.

"Hisagi-san…" Komamura's voice is wrought with emotion as well, as if the wounds he bears physically mirror injuries that have driven all the way to his soul. Understandable. He had striven so hard with Shuuhei to seek redemption for the traitor, Tousen.

Muguruma, his face so stern as he looks at Shuuhei that Yumichika would quite like to send his knee right smack into it, stoops behind the distraught lieutenant and makes to grab his shoulders, as if to pull Shuuhei away by force.

" **NO!!!** " Wrenching out of the loose grasp, Shuuhei curls forward, face-first into the gore splattered atop a craggy slab of concrete. Tears have left streaks down Shuuhei's bloodstained face, and still more pour out of red-rimmed gray eyes. " **TAICHOU! TAICHOU!!!** "

Yumichika wants to kill something. He wants to kill this Muguruma person for only making Shuuhei more upset by trying to separate him from his beloved captain's remains. He wants to kill Tousen for making Shuuhei scream like this. He wants to kill Aizen for making Tousen into a monster and leading him (and therefore Shuuhei) down this path in the first place. But he can do none of those things (though Muguruma still presents a tempting target). Steeling himself, Yumichika strides into the cluster.

"Ayasegawa-san," is Komamura's civil, but still pained, greeting. Muguruma says nothing, only sparing Yumi a glance before his amber eyes return to the sobbing and screaming Shuuhei. (And maybe this time, Yumichika thinks, they don't look quite as harsh as before.)

Yumichika nods to the captain of the Seventh, gives no acknowledgement to the stranger, and makes his way to Shuuhei. Cautiously, half-expecting Shuuhei to shrink away from him, too, Yumichika puts a hand on his lover's back. Shuuhei flinches, but gives no other indication that he knows Yumi is there. However…

_**Hey, Peacock.** _

The faint manifestation hangs on the air over Shuuhei. Perhaps it's because Yumi knows Shuuhei's reiatsu so well, but, when they're close like this, the zanpakuto has been able to communicate to him directly. Kazeshini's form intrigues Yumi. He honestly thinks sometimes that Shuuhei should have joined the Eleventh. At least there, he wouldn't have been torn in two by Tousen.

_**It's pouring acid rain in here.** _

_I don't doubt._

_**I tried to make him kill Tousen with one blow, but he's a weak brat.** _

_I know. But that's just who our Shuu is. Weak and sensitive and far too good for either of us._

Kazeshini huffs. _**Maybe for**_ _ **y o u**_ _**, at least.**_ But those eyes of blue fire are surprisingly softened, those dark features scrunched up in sympathy. As harsh and fierce and bloodthirsty as the zanpakuto is, Yumi understands that all Kazeshini really wants is to protect his master. Even if that means killing everyone else.

In that respect, Yumi and the spirit of Shuuhei's sword are quite alike.

_Is there anything you can do?_

_**Nah. He ain't listening to me.** _

That's to be expected, he supposes. As Yumichika listens to the situation inside Shuuhei, a member of the Fourth calls Komamura away to receive medical treatment. It's clear that the captain has little desire to leave, but he accepts the summons with a bowed head. That just leaves the Muguruma fellow, who, finally, speaks.

"You a friend of his?" Jutting his chin lightly in Shuuhei's direction.

Yumichika spares him any clarification with a simple, "Yes."

And that's all, at first. They stay with Shuuhei until the poor darling's voice starts to give out entirely. At least he's quieter this way, but the whimpers, the half-audible calls over and over for Tousen Kaname, are just as painful to listen to. Yumichika can't even comfort him _properly_ , with everyone else around. For the sake of Shuuhei's reputation as an acting captain, he had agreed to keep everything between them under wraps (though Ikkaku knows, of course, and he suspects that Lieutenants Abarai and Kira have some inkling — there's even been a suspicious comment or two from Twelfth Division's Third Seat, Akon). Which means all Yumi can do is sit and wait.

Muguruma, it would seem, is not so patient.

"Kid, look, you're bleeding. Let the damn Fourth look at ya already."

Shuuhei finally looks up, still coated with the filth of Tousen's corpse, but his eyes are glazed over. "T… taichou…"

"Ain't nothin' you can do for him now, kid. C'mon, let's get you up and to a medic."

"Taichou…" Shuuhei crawls on all fours, like some deranged animal, toward Muguruma, but the man only slightly balks at the disturbing action, even when Shuuhei grabs onto one of his pant legs with bloodied hand and gazes at him with those wide, unfocused eyes. "Tai..chou…"

Yumichika's gut wrenches a little more. Shuuhei is broken. Proper speech seems beyond him at this point, leaving only with the title he had been calling so many times with no answer. Muguruma, however, seems to understand some deeper meaning, and that angers Yumi by a fraction — but if it'll help Shuuhei communicate, then who is he to protest? The silver-haired man kneels, placing a fingerless-gloved hand on top of Shuuhei's quaking, sticky one.

"Yeah, kid. It's me."

Fresh tears well up in slate gray eyes, but the choked, rapsy sobs that come out of Shuuhei now feel somehow more akin to the wails of a child in desperate need of comfort. And then it clicks. Muguruma. Shuuhei's tattoo. Yumi remembers the story now, and his eyes widen a little. _This_ is the man who saved Shuuhei so long ago? Yumichika feels conflicting desires at the thought, whether to thank him or to slug him. Because, yes, he had saved Shuuhei's life, but where had he been after that when Shuuhei had needed him time after time? (Even Shuuhei himself had thought the man dead!)

Muguruma doesn't shy away from the gore. Without hesitation, he reaches out and scoops up the mess that is Shuuhei into strong arms, carrying him as one would a princess (which is equal parts touching and jealousy-inducing). Count this one of the times Yumichika laments being shorter and smaller than his lover, rendered unable to carry him thus.

"Where did the wolf-man go?" Muguruma asks, craning to look for where Komamura had headed.

Yumichika points accordingly. "The Fourth seems to have set up a healing station there."

"Right, then. Here we go, kid."

Still inconsolable, Shuuhei has gripped fistfuls of Muguruma's tank top and buried his face against the man's thick neck. Yumichika wants to kick himself for thinking this, but… Shuuhei looks good there. His bony limbs tucked against the muscular curves of this man. He just _fits_. And Yumichika immediately feels unneeded. Thankfully, he is alone in that sentiment.

_**Hey. Don't fall behind, Peacock. I want you close by when he comes out of this.** _

That's assuming Shuuhei _will_ come out of it, but, if Kazeshini believes, then Yumichika will, too. Shuuhei, for all his weakness, possesses his own shade of enduring strength. He may be broken right now — he may, indeed, be broken for a long time after this — but Yumichika will be here for Shuuhei to help him piece himself back together.

 _Certainly_ more so than Muguruma, at least.

**Author's Note:**

> Shuuhei would have told Komamura about Kensei as they built a friendship for Team Save Tousen, so that’s how Komamura knows who Kensei is on the battlefield.


End file.
